Chakravarty, RituSAHOO, SUCHARITA2023-10-182023-10-182020https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810199079Rural youth, who constitute a major proportion of the total youth population of the country, are a major asset for the development of the agriculture & allied sector. Aspiration is known to play a vital role in an individual’s progress in life and it determines the ways in which young people orient themselves to future goals and achievements. Provision of need based entrepreneurial education and training can help them build the required knowledge, skill and attitude for starting and operating an enterprise successfully in their locality. Therefore, a study was conducted in purposively selected Cuttack district of state Odisha to know the aspiration level and training needs of rural youth for entrepreneurship in crop and dairy farming. Four blocks were selected following proportionate random sampling method and from each block, 3 villages were selected randomly and 15 respondents from each village were selected randomly. Thus, a total of 180 respondents were considered for the study. Data collection was done through pre-tested and standardised interview schedule. The results showed majority (51.67 per cent) of the respondents were between the age group of 30- 35 years, most of them (39.44 per cent) were educated up to higher secondary level and were engaged in crop and dairy farming as their occupation (46.67 per cent). Most of the respondents (45 per cent) had small land holding, small herd size and low annual income. The composite index developed using Principal Component Analysis showed that most of the respondents had medium level of livelihood aspiration (46.67 per cent), low level of lifestyle aspiration (37.78 per cent) and low level of entrepreneurial aspiration (46.67 per cent). Overall aspiration of the respondents was medium among most (43.33 per cent) of the respondents. “Earning stable income”, “financial support from government” and “training programmes for entrepreneurship development” were the major pull factors and “low income from traditional crop & dairy farming”, “unstable market prices for crop and dairy products” and “animal menace” were the major push factors reported by the respondents in order of their preferences for pursuing entrepreneurship in crop and dairy farming. Garrett ranking of the perceived training needs of the respondents for entrepreneurship revealed that among general management training needs, “preparation of business plan” was ranked 1st followed by “preparation of financial plan”; among entrepreneurial training needs, 1st rank was given to “identification of business opportunities in their locality and region” followed by “improving communication skills”; and among knowledge related training needs, “technical knowledge on production and processing” was given 1st rank followed by “availing loan facilities from different financial sources”.EnglishThesis